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Unit 4.2: More Music

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There is, however, some evidence that music affects other species. ... Sex, drugs and rock n roll. Plato and totalitarian regimes. Religious Fundamentalism ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Unit 4.2: More Music


1
Unit 4.2 More Music
Leo
Issy
  • Affective Effects Of Music

2
Unit Outline
  • The Psychobiology of Music
  • Musical preferences
  • Social Psychology of Music
  • Music As Language?
  • Is Music Dangerous?

3
The Psychobiology of Music
4
The Psychobiology of Music
  • Stephen Pinker maintains music is just
    evolutionary cheesecake.
  • Oliver Sachs, on the other hand, feels it is
    central to our humanity.
  • There is, however, some evidence that music
    affects other species.
  • Nonetheless, no other species seems to
    demonstrate a desire for musical stimulation for
    its own sake. (Bird song or whale music serve
    practical purposes.)
  • Recent brain imaging techniques reveal that music
    activates many very different areas of the
    brainfar more than speech.
  • Music engages us on many levels.
  • As a temporal art, it requires memory and higher
    orders of cognition for appreciation.
  • It obviously involves the limbic system and
    affects our emotions.
  • It produces such a pleasure response that it
    seems equivalent to what we feel when we satisfy
    a biological need, such as eating when hungry.

5
The Psychobiology of Music
  • Music and mood
  • Music can change our mood.
  • Our mood determines our choice of music.
  • Music can relax us or energize us.
  • Our energy level determines our choice of music.
  • Paradoxes
  • Blues that cheer us up.
  • Cheerful music that depresses us.

6
Musical Preferences
7
Musical Preferences
  • There are virtually universal preferences based
    on nature.
  • Typical (and preferred) dynamic range is that of
    the human voice.
  • The octave and key preferences seem innate.
  • Some sounds seem to be universally aversive.
  • Return to the tonic temporal symmetry is
    pleasing.
  • Young infants show preference for harmony.
  • But there are huge individual differences based
    on nurture and personal attributes.
  • Early experience.
  • Training in performance.
  • Exposure to variety.
  • Tolerance for ambiguity and dissonance.
  • Musical cognition skills.

8
Musical Preferences
  • A Preference in Sequencing Of Tunes Study
  • The Design
  • Subjects familiarised with music used in study
  • Subjects indicate preferences for each type of
    music
  • Subjects schedule 2 minutes of each of 7 musical
    pieces in fifteen second bits
  • ?

9
Musical Preferences
  • A Preferences in Sequencing Of Tunes Study
  • The music presented.
  • 18th Century 'serious' music
  • 20th Century 'serious' music
  • 'Mellow' rock
  • 'Hard' rock
  • Computer generated simple melodies
  • Computer generated complex melodies
  • Aversive 350 Hz. Square-wave tones
  • And results?

10
Musical Preferences
  • A Preferences in Sequencing Of Tunes Study
  • Patterns found
  • Aversive put first in sequence
  • Aversive put in short runs
  • Least preferred followed by longer runs of works
    liked 2nd best
  • Tended to saved best for last
  • Tendency to alternate mellow/hard

11
Musical Preferences
  • The problem of taxonomy.
  • How to classify genres.
  • Flashback to first class and preferences in art
    media versus preference for particular samples.

12
Musical Preferences
STUDENT PREFERENCES LIST TOP THREE
  • Alternative Rock
  • Classical
  • Contemporary Pop
  • Country
  • Ethnic/Global
  • Folk
  • Golden Oldies
  • Gospel
  • Hard Rock/Heavy Metal
  • Hip-Hop/Rap
  • Jazz/Blues
  • Musicals/Soundtracks
  • Opera
  • Rhythm Blues
  • Rock
  • Techno/Dance

13
Social Psychology of Music
14
Social Psychology of Music
  • All known cultures have music, but many languages
    do not even have a specific word for it!
  • It is often linked to religion and sense of
    community.
  • Music in Western Europe gradually changed from a
    communal participatory thing to a division
    between performer and audience around the 17th
    century.
  • Still music remains a major component in our
    relationships with other peopledespite the pod
    people.

15
Social Psychology of Music
  • Cultural Expectations
  • Expected context of encounter with music
  • Contrast contemporary ambient music with folk
    culture special-event
  • Making people sit and listen to music without
    talking
  • Expected content of music
  • Appropriateness (playing lieder at a party)
  • Genre expectations (e.g., Keith Jarrett)

16
Social Psychology of Music
  • Social Enhancers To Appreciation
  • Going to the opera
  • Rock concerts
  • Intimate sharing
  • Drug enhancers

17
Social Psychology of Music
  • Religion and ecstatic experience
  • E.g. Amazing Grace, Charlotte Church
  • Protest and social movements
  • E.g. Eve Of Destruction, Barry McGuire
  • Common ground (E.g., Woodstock)
  • E.g. Up Around The Bend, CCR
  • Memory and context, conditioned response
    (Theyre playing our song!)
  • E.g. Roses Are Red, Bobby Vinton

18
Music As Language?
19
Music As Language?
  • Unanswered Questions
  • Is music really a universal language?
  • If so what does it communicate?
  • Does it mean more to youor did you react
    differently to itthe second time, the third
    time?
  • What are the implications of this?

20
Music As Language?
  • First thing to consider absolute music versus
    music with lyrics or music as part of
  • Film
  • Theatre
  • Social experience

21
Music As Language?
  • Absolute music
  • Relatively new (Baroque Period)
  • Still not the norm
  • The Romantic Period composers attempt to
    communicate without words
  • E.g., Berlioz
  • E.g., Holst
  • E.g., Vivaldi (Baroque)
  • E.g., Mussorgsky (identify)

22
Music As Language?
  • External Referent Issue
  • Program music (e.g., Pictures At An Exhibition,
    The Planets, Four Seasons)
  • Refer back to Unit On Function Of Art and
    communication re Pictures At An Exhibition
  • Non-referential music (e.g., Beethovens Last
    Quartets). Is it purer?
  • What about appreciating innovation based on
    historical knowledge of musical forms e.g.,
    Beethoven use of a choral element in his 9th
    Symphony?

23
Music As Language?
  • Maybe a universal alphabet or vocabulary?
  • The ubiquitous octave.
  • Response to rhythm.
  • Response to minor keys.
  • Or culturally specific?
  • Oriental versus occidental music.
  • The empirical evidence
  • Effects of training.
  • Failure of serialism and 12 tone music.
  • Music sounds the way moods feel tension and
    release, motion and rest.
  • But that denotatively descriptive is not
    true.(e.g., Schuberts Trout Quintet shows no
    fish!)

24
Music As Language?
  • Lyrics
  • Intimately connected with music
  • Relevant question often asked of
    singer/songwriters Which came first, the music
    or the words?
  • Rarely stand alone even when seem impressive in
    the context of the music.
  • E.g., Bob Dylan
  • Some exceptions
  • E.g., Leonard Cohen (a poet first)
  • E.g., Tom Waits

25
Music As Language?
  • Musical Interlude Tom Waits (Play as many as
    time permits)
  • Pasties And A G-string
  • Alice
  • The Black Rider
  • The Part You Throw Away
  • Tom Trauberts Blues
  • The Piano Has Been Drinking, Not Me

26
Is Music Dangerous?
27
Is Music Dangerous?
  • Musics potential for evil?
  • Sex, drugs and rock n roll
  • Plato and totalitarian regimes
  • Religious Fundamentalism
  • Musics potential for good?
  • Inspirational
  • Social change
  • Religious music
  • The empirical evidence?

28
Is Music Dangerous?
  • An Arousal, Aggression Preferences Study
  • A complex study by Konecni to determine effects
    of arousal on aesthetic choice and behaviour
    (including retaliationala Milgram).
  • Subjects subjected to insults and music of
    different intensities and complexity.

29
Is Music Dangerous?
  • An Arousal, Aggression Preferences Study
  • Effects of social stimulation on aesthetic
    choice
  • Insults were used to raise arousal (retaliation
    to insults mitigated arousal).
  • And arousal in turn decreased preference for
    complexity in musical compositions

30
Is Music Dangerous?
  • An Arousal, Aggression Preferences Study
  • Effects of information load on aesthetic choice
  • High processing (memorising material) raised
    arousal.
  • Arousal again decreased preference for
    complexity. (E.g., turning down the radio when
    the driving gets tricky.)

31
Is Music Dangerous?
  • An Arousal, Aggression Preferences Study
  • Effects of complexity, intensity and insults on
    emotional states and aggressive behaviour
  • Pseudo-shock design to test aggression.
  • IVs
  • sound intensity (aversive and arousing)
  • sound complexity (arousing)
  • confederate insults (highly aversive and
    arousing)
  • Greatest aggression from loud, complex with
    insults.
  • No increase in aggression if not insulted,except
    when loud.
  • Simple soft melodies attenuated aggression.

32
Items for discussion in forum, journal, or
in-class (if time permitting)
  • Does modern popular music (especially gangsta
    rap) warp the values of young people?
  • Should it be censored? Are the warning labels on
    music CDs a good idea?
  • What about censorship in general?

33
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